CFP: Between Future and Fatality: Utopian and Dystopian Ideas in German Literature, Film, and Culture (grad) (8/31/06; 10/27/06-

"Between Future and Fatality:Utopian and Dystopian Ideas in German Literature, Film, and Culture."

The German Graduate Student Governance Association of the University ofCincinnatiand the editors of the graduate student journal Focus on German Studiespresent the Eleventh Annual Focus Graduate Student Conferenceheld on October 27-28, 2006 at the University of Cincinnati

Keynote speaker to be announced soon

Modern societies are based on the premise that the tomorrow ispredictable. Humanity has excelled in constructing high-tech computers,in changing genetic information, in mastering diseases and going intospace. However, the prediction of the future, the old fantasy ofovercoming the barrier of time is still a thorn in the flesh of the homotechnicus. Human beings yearn to know how the world will be tomorrow andalso how the course of the world could be changed.

Literature and film have always served as media for drawing up animaginary future. Be it as a harbinger of dark apocalyptic visions or asthe beacon of a paradisiacal and ideal world. This conference seeks toexplore any kind of utopian and/or dystopian thinking in German culture.We invite not only traditional scholarly works in the field of GermanStudies but also interdisciplinary responses focusing on literature,film, theory, philosophy, ethics, history linked to Germany.

What kinds of representations of dystopian / utopian ideas exist? Whatgenre is chosen and why? What techniques do the authors choose toportray these representations? In what way can these works be linked tothe period in which they originated? To what extent did the authors'prophetic power influence and change the society they lived in? Or aresuch works often escapist rather than ambitiously intent on change? Arethese works rebellious towards their time or do they rather affirm it?Is there a specific German tone in such works that sets them apart fromother utopian / dystopian traditions (e.g. as opposed to the vast amountof such works in English). To what extent do such works exert politicalpower and therefore possibly transcend their status as mere culturalproducts? Are these dystopian utopian visions reflections of realhistorical conditions projected onto the level of fantasy or fantasymade similar enough to reality to create narrative interest?We invite graduate students from all disciplines to submit paperproposals responding to these or similar questions related to thedepiction of utopian and dystopian concepts in modern or pre-modern timeperiods. Possible topics include, but are by no means limited to:

Revised conference papers can also be submitted for publication in ourFocus on German Studies journal.Information on the keynote speaker will be announced soon. Please sendan abstract of 250-300 words in either English or German as Wordattachment by August 31, 2006 to Wolfgang Lückel and Todd Heidt atfocusonlit_at_fastmail.fm (ATTN: Focus on GS Conference). On a separatecover sheet please list the proposed paper title, author's name,affiliation, and e-mail address. Conference participants have the optionof housing with UC graduate students.University of Cincinnati, German Studies Department733 Old Chemistry Building, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0372Phone: 513-556-2752, Fax: 513-556-1991